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Abstract - In India, several construction projects The construction process could be divided into three
experiencing more delays which results in exceeding the phases, i.e. conception of the project, designing of the project
initially fixed delivery time and cost. Delay can be defined as and finally construction of the project. Chan and
the time overrun or the extension of time to complete the Kumaraswamy (1997) stated the vast majority of project
project. This paper aims to find out the most significant delays occur during the construction-phase, where many
factors causing delays in Indian construction projects through unforeseen factors are always involved. According to Al-
literature review and questionnaire survey. From the Khalil and Al-Ghafly (1999) delays can adversely impact on
literature review 103 causes of delays categorized into 8 project stakeholders, such as owner, contractors, etc. It
different groups, 8 effects of delays were found and also means loss of revenue for the owner due to lack of
rankings given by each authors for the delaying factors are not production facility and loss of profit for the contractor due to
the same due to varying native and context. Further, the higher overhead costs. However, a delay in a construction
Questionnaire survey is conducted with the participants project can be caused either by owner or by the contractor
(contractors, owners, consultants and others) of Indian or by numerous other reasons. In some case, number of
construction industry in order to shortlist the top 20 delays could be caused simultaneously either by owner or
significant factors with respect to Indian context and finally contractor without any dependence with each other, these
recommendations are given to avoid delays in construction are said to be concurrent delays which is the most critical
project. topic to deal with, and always leads to arbitration process.
Completing the project on specified time saves lots of
Key Words: Construction Management, Causes of Delays, money which is an indication of efficiency and an effective
Effects of Delays, Construction Industry, India. project management, however, it is a rare case of happening.
Azhar and Farouqui (2008) observed that Delays on
construction projects are a universal phenomenon in which
1. INTRODUCTION the trend of time and cost overrun is common worldwide
and it is more severe in developing countries.
This Construction industry is the second largest and basic
input for socio-economic development of our country after
agriculture, which has contributed an estimated amount of 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
928418 crore to the national GDP in 2014-15, a share of
around 8.04% (Planning Commission, Government of India). Ahsan and Gunawan (2010) made a separate study
Though construction projects in India facing various comparing the performance of international development
problems, delay in construction is one of the major issues. It projects in India, China, Bangladesh, and Thailand, in which
is defined as the time overrun, either beyond the they reported that construction projects in India showed the
completion date specified in a contract or beyond the date worst schedule performance. The study found that in India
that the parties agreed upon for delivery of a project. It is average schedule overrun is the highest (55% of actual
considered as a common problem in construction projects. In schedule) compared to the other nations. Shebob.A,
most of the projects, there will be delays and their impact Dawood.N and Xu.Q (2011) made a Comparative study b/w
level varies on each project which depends on several factors Libya and UK construction project through questionnaire
such as nature and the type of construction, importance of survey. The delay factors were ranked using the frequency of
the project, etc. occurrence and severity scale. The survey result exposed
that the construction projects in the developing countries
When the project gets delayed, either the delivery time of suffers more delay than the developed countries due to lack
the project will be extended or the progress of the project of technology in the developing countries. Towhid
will be accelerated heavily in order to deliver it on time. The Pourrostam and Amiruddin Ismail (2012) related the field of
former will lead to arbitration, litigation, and penalties, etc. causes of delay in construction projects has been reviewed
and the later will lead to incur additional cost, both will end over the last decade through a questionnaire survey
up with loss of money. In worst case, accelerating the conducted in Iranian to solicit the causes of delay from
process of the project will also affect the quality of the consultants and contractors viewpoint.
output which sacrifices clients satisfaction.
2016, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 4.45 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1831
International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 03 Issue: 04 | Apr-2016 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
Ibrahim Mahamid (2013) conducted a survey on time affecting the project performance, followed by clients
performance of different types of construction projects in contributing factors such as delay to furnish & deliver the
Saudi Arabia to determine the causes of delay and their site, late in revising & approving design documents. Owolabi
importance according to each of the project participants, i.e, James et.al (2014) used random sampling technique to list
the owner, consultant and the contractor. Then finally he out the most significant causes of delays in construction
concluded that 76% of the contractors and 56% of the project. From the survey they observed that 51% of the
consultants indicated that average of time overrun is delays are caused by the client, followed by the contractor
between 10% and 30% of the original duration and also with 36% and the consultant with 13%. ARC document
found 70% of the projects experienced time overrun in Saudi solutions (2015) study shows that the problems with
(i.e. 53 out of 76 projects). document management is a major source of delays and time
overrun on construction projects.
J.Raj Bharath & Prof Siddesh K Pai (2013) have
mentioned that recently commissioned, Bandra-worli sea
link amply demonstrates the state of project delivery system
in the country. It was planned as Rs300 crore project to be
3. CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF DELAYS
completed by 2004, but had actually cost of Rs1600 crores From the literature review, 103 causes of delays categorized
with the delay of five years. Ruth apolot, henry alinaitwe & into 8 different groups were found in order to make a
dan tindiwensi (2013) made a case study and concluded that questionnaire survey with the respective participants
the stakeholders in the construction industry are advised to (contractors, owners, consultants and others) of Indian
minimize the change in scope of work as it has the most construction industry and also 8 effects of delays were
effect on cost and time overrun and recommended there observed. The number of causes and effects are given below.
should be change from the traditional contract type to the
design-build type and improved cash flow on the part of the 3.1 Causes of Delay
client so as to reduce payment delays. Group-A Owner Contributed Factors
Ghulam Abbas Niazai and Kassim Gidado (2013) reported 1. Delay in progress payments
that contract with less than 12 months highly contributes to 2. Delay to furnish and deliver the site
delays. They concluded that two causes of delay are common
3. Change orders (plan/design) & extra orders by owner
between all parties, which are security and corruption.
during construction
Poor security is the most difficult challenges that
stakeholders face in implementing construction projects. It 4. Late in revising and approving design documents
has delayed projects and increased costs. Corruption 5. Delay in approving shop drawings and sample
constitutes a serious threat to Afghanistan Construction materials
Industry improvement as it has significant effects on 6. Slowness in decision-making process
construction delays. There is an urgent need for developing a
7. Conflicts between joint-ownership of the project
legal framework for fighting corruption, whereas the current
framework has been outdated and unclear. 8. Suspension of work by owner
9. Owners lack of experience and involvement
Anu V. Thomas and J. Sudhakumar (2014) mentioned that
low productivity leads to delays in construction and 10. Bureaucracy in client's organisation
reported the results of questionnaire survey made to identify 11. Unavailability of professional construction
the factors influencing construction labour productivity with management (i.e. consultant)
the project managers, site engineers, supervisors and
Group-B Contractor Contributed Factors
craftsmen, in the state of Kerala, India, and also mentioned
timely availability of materials at the worksite, delayed 12. Difficulties in financing project/insolvency
material delivery by the supplier, strikes called by political 13. Conflicts in sub-contractors schedule during
parties or hartals, frequent revisions of drawings/design, execution
resulting in additional work/rework and timely availability 14. Rework due to errors during construction
of drawings at the worksite as a significant impact on labour
15. Conflicts between contractor and other participants
productivity. Nitin Chaphalkar and K. C. Iyer (2014) said, in
some cases disputes may raise b/w the stakeholders during 16. Ineffective & inadequate early planning and
the construction phase, in which if its not handled properly, scheduling of project
tend to consume time and money of the parties disputing, 17. Implementing improper & obsolete construction
which leads the project to extended stay. methods
Prakash Rao and Joseph Camron Culas (2014) had 18. Fraudulent practices and kickbacks
concluded that, ineffective planning & scheduling of project, 19. Negotiations and obtaining of contracts
delays in site mobilization and delay in sub-contractors 20. Inadequate contractor's work & experience & also
work are three most critical factors caused by the contractor, poor risk management and ignorance
2016, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 4.45 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1832
International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 03 Issue: 04 | Apr-2016 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
84. Inadequate overall organizational structure 6. Dispute, Arbitration or Litigation b/w the participants
85. Litigation b/w various parties in the mid of of the project
construction 7. Abandonment of project
86. Poor government judicial system for construction 8. Difficult in improving the market value of the
dispute settlement contractors company
87. Security (checking process for quality and other
purposes)
88. Corruption & hostile political conditions and also
4. METHODOLOGY
strikes called by political parties or hartal Initially literature review was made in order to find out the
89. Effects of social and cultural factors delay causing factors in construction project which assisted
90. Original contract duration is too short Unrealistic in making a questionnaire survey with the professional
time schedule imposed in contract experts and other participants of Indian construction
industry in order to find out the relative importance of those
91. Lack of motivation for contractors for early finish found causes with respect to Indian context.
and ineffective delay penalties
92. Types of construction contract (Turnkey or 4.1 Questionnaire Survey
design/construction only)
By assuming random sampling technique, a total number
93. Type of project bidding and award (negotiation,
of 100 questionnaires were sent to many professional
lowest bidder.)
experts in various parts of the country through mail but got
94. Aggressive competition at tender stage only 36 responses from the survey and further 4
95. Short bid preparation time leads to improper bidding questionnaires were taken directly with the reputed
by contractor companies in the locality in order to round the respondents
96. Land acquisition to 40 from the overall survey. Though the sample size is
relatively small, the quality of the responses was considered
97. Faulty soil investigation report to be highly reliable for the analysis due to relevant industry
98. Delay in finalisation of rates for extra items experiences and clear understanding of the questionnaires
99. Lack of periodic meeting among the management, among the respondents (Vaus, 2001).
site personnel and the contractors and also weekly Relative Importance Index method is adopted to
project evaluation meetings determine the relative importance of the various causes of
100. Problem with neighbours delays. In this case, four-point Likert scale were adopted
101. Improper project document management which ranges from 1 (not important) to 4 (extremely
102. Lack of database and experience for estimating important) and transformed to relative importance index
activity duration and resources required in a new (RII) for each factors using the formula shown below:
type of construction project Relative Importance Index, RII =
103. Poor communication and coordination b/w the
participants of the construction project (owners, Relative importance index ranges b/w 0 to 1 i.e. (0 RII
contractors & sub-contractors, designers, 1), higher value indicates more importance for that cause
consultants, workers and suppliers) observed. The of delay. where W = weighting given to each factor by the
number of causes and effects are given below respondents which ranges from 1 to 4 where '1' is 'not
important' and '4' is 'extremely important', A = highest
3.2 Effects of Delay weight (i.e. 4 in this case), and N = total number of
respondents (i.e. 40 in this case).
1. Time overrun
2. Much reduction in profit for the contractor due to cost Table-1 shows the sample format of undertook
overrun Questionnaire survey. Each causes RII is been assessed by
combining the opinion of overall respondents (contractors,
3. Non-productivity loss for the owner due to extended
consultants, owners and others) which is assumed as a
stay of construction phase
general opinion among the experts of Indian construction
4. Distrust with contractor and damage for the industry.
companys reputation
Table-2 shows the top 20 delay-causing factors
5. Distrust insists the owner to delay the progress
considered as relative importance by the respondents, which
payment which leads to contractors cash-flow
is been listed out in the ascending order of rank with respect
problem
to RII perceived. Rank 1 indicates the most important factor
causing delay and followed by other factors.
2016, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 4.45 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1834
International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 03 Issue: 04 | Apr-2016 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
RELATIVE IMPORTANCE
CATEGORY FACTORS CAUSING DELAY NOT SOME EXT.
IMP
IMP IMP IMP
1. Delay in progress payments
OWNER .
.
12. Difficulties in financing project/insolvency
CONTRACTOR .
.
27. Poor qualification & Inadequate experience of
consultants engineering staff
CONSULTANT
.
.
32. Insufficient data collection and survey before
design
DESIGNER
.
.
40. Shortage of labours
LABOUR .
.
51. Shortage of construction materials in market
MATERIALS .
.
63. Equipment breakdown and their idle time and
lack of tool in market
EQUIPMENT
.
.
71. Effects of unforeseen subsurface and changing
ground condition (e.g. Soil, high water table) factors
.
EXTERNAL .
FACTORS
103. Poor communication and coordination b/w the
participants of the construction project (owners,
contractors & sub-contractors, designers,
consultants, workers and suppliers)
2016, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 4.45 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1835
International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 03 Issue: 04 | Apr-2016 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
2016, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 4.45 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1836
International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 03 Issue: 04 | Apr-2016 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
5. CONCLUSION WITH RECOMMENDATIONS [4] Hemanta Doloi, Anil Sawhney, K.C. Iyer, Sameer Rentala
(2012) Analysing factors affecting delays in Indian
From the above list of most significant factors causing delay construction projects International Journal of Project
in the construction, Inadequate contractor's work & Management, 479489
experience & their poor risk management and ignorance ranks [5] J.Raj Bharath & Prof Siddesh K Pai (2013) Analysis Of
first with the RII 0.86875. By recognising this fact, awarding Critical Causes Of Delays In Indian Infrastructure Projects
the project to the competent contractor who has lot of International journal of innovative research &
development, vol2 issue3, 251-263
experience in the specific project type will avoid this kind of
delay in the project, in which specialised and global [6] Ruth apolot, henry alinaitwe, dan tindiwensi (2013) An
Investigation into the Causes of Delay and Cost Overrun in
contractors know well to tackle the pressurised situation by Ugandas Public Sector Construction Projects Second
adopting effective risk management skills. Though International Conference on Advances in Engineering and
communication and coordination between the participants as Technology, 305-311
the same RII 0.86875 as of contractors work experience, it is [7] Ghulam Abbas Niazai and Kassim Gidado (2013) Causes
considered as the second most significant factor causing of Project Delay in the Construction Industry in
delay in the project with respect to the priority compared. It Afghanistan Journal of Construction Engineering &
plays vital role in the effective progress of the construction. Management
The company which is not up to date with the information [8] Anu V. Thomas and J. Sudhakumar (2014) Factors
communication technology will be lagging in the progress Influencing Construction Labour Productivity: An Indian
Case Study Journal of Construction in Developing
and cant survive in the competitive market. Latest Countries, 19(1), 5368
information communication technology will boost up the
[9] Prakash Rao and Joseph Camron Culas (2014) Causes of
productivity of the communication which reduces the delay in construction projects International Journal of
chances of getting delayed. Current Research Vol. 6, Issue, 06, pp.7219-7222
The major reason behind all these causes is lack of [10] P.M.Pethkari and B.V.Birajdar (2014) Literature review on
commitment and coordination within the project causes of delay in building construction projects Journal of
Information, Knowledge and Research in Civil
participants. The commitment of the project participants Engineering, Volume 3, Issue 2, 217-220
drastically affects the quality and the progress of the project.
[11] Owolabi James D, Amusan Lekan M, Oloke C.O, Olusanya
Issue of delay in construction is common globally, but its O, Tunji-Olayeni P, OwolabiDele, PeterJoy (2014) Causes
causes & effects varies with respect to native, context and and effects of delay on project construction delivery time
culture of the construction industry. Contractors should International Journal of Education and Research Vol. 2 No.
effectively plan and schedule the project in advance by 4, 197- 208
considering all possible risk factors with respect to the nature [12] Aditi Dinakar (2014) Delay analysis in construction
and culture of the locality. Commitment from top to bottom project International Journal of Emerging Technology and
level management is more important in which periodic Advanced Engineering, Volume 4, Issue 5, 784-788
review and correction should be made in all aspects (safety,
quality, material, equipment) to avoid unnecessary delays
and cost overruns. Unskilled workers are inefficient, in which
labours and supervisors should be well trained with effective
training program to improve their knowledge. Delivery of
construction materials should be dealt carefully with the
vendors which affects the progress of the project utmost.
Owner should be well aware about the effect of changing
orders during construction and delay in progress payment,
which affects the project completion on predefined time.
REFERENCES
[1] Shebob, A, Dawood, N and Xu, Q (2011) Analysing
construction delay factors in building construction
Association of Researchers in Construction Management,
1005-1012
[2] Chidambaram Ramanathan, SP Narayanan and Arazi B
Idrus (2012) Construction Delays Causing Risks on Time
and Cost a Critical Review Australasian Journal of
Construction Economics and Building, 12 (1) 37-57
[3] Towhid Pourrostam and Amiruddin Ismail (2012) Causes
and effects of delay in Iranian construction project
International Journal of Engineering and Technology, Vol.
4, No. 5
2016, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 4.45 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1837